As we celebrate Independence Day, there is one though that comes to mind – a teaching by Nachman of Breslov:

How is it possible for a one person to describe God to another? From one day to the next, we can barely describe God to ourselves. Each day, we see sparks of God’s goodness, and we cannot even describe the sparks we saw yesterday. The beginning of knowing is the realization that that we can barely describe God at all.

Here is Rav Nachman, one of the great spiritual geniuses of all time, admitting his ignorance, admitting that it is barely possible to him to say anything about the Holy One.

Humility has always been one of the cornerstones of Judaism. In the Talmud, the sages would often introduce their arguments with the phrase b’anyut daati, from the limits of my knowledge. And minority opinions on legal issues have been preserved and studied for over a thousand years, because they, too, have merit.

Who can say that they really know God? And who can say that they really know what God wants from us? All we can do is to study Torah again and again, hoping to find answers. And all we can do is to study with others, listening, discussing, hoping to combine our wisdom.

And yet, perhaps, there is one thing we can agree on. In the words of the Keter Shem Tov:

In each and every one of our gestures, the Blessed Creator is present.  It is actually impossible to  move or speak except for the energy of the Holy Creator within us.  This is the meaning of the phrase, “God’s glory fills the earth” – that every word derives from God.

God is somehow present within each of us. Every word, every opinion, every person is important, because there is something of God within each of us.

Independence Day is a time to be humble, a time to remember that our journey towards freedom, our journey towards equality has just begun.

So as the fireworks start, I pray for humility. May we all remember that we are just beginning to know. We are just beginning to understand God, and we are just beginning to understand the potential of our country.

And may we aspire to the highest interpretation of the founders’ words – that all people are created equal. And may we remember that God is present in each of us.